Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) proposed that Iranians should pay for President Donald Trump’s war with their country after the Defense Department asked for $200 billion to help bolster military operations.
“I support the president. I support this action, but at the same time, we’ve got to pay for this,” Perry told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Thursday night. “So how is this going to be dealt with? I would actually like to see Iran pay for this, whether it’s 20 billion or 200 billion, whatever it is.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Thursday that the White House will seek a large sum of money to pay for the war, estimated at $200 billion, but said, “that number could move.”
Hegseth added, “Obviously, it takes money to kill bad guys. So we’re going back to Congress and folks there to ― to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is ― everything’s refilled and not just refilled, but above and beyond.”
Perry told Collins that the war comes at a cost and claimed that Iran has the resources to offset the price of war.
“They have been siphoning those resources away from their population for those four and a half, five decades and certainly they could pay that bill pretty quickly once things get up and running and the Ayatollah is no longer in charge,” Perry said. “So I think that’s an option that we need to pursue as well.”
He doubled down on his proposal after being pressed by Collins, telling her, “we got to pay for this somehow,” and “we don’t have endless money.”
Perry continued, “Look, like, I said, I support the president. We support the action. Iran has to be taken off the equation. We’re sick of the terror. We’re sick of living under the scourge of potentially nuclear war. We don’t want to live like that, but all things come at a cost, so we have to be responsible with how we spend our money.”
